Tea & Trumpets: The band used their trip to London as an opportunity to further develop their relationships with each other

Trailing the SME Marching Lancers sign, blaring trumpets, whistling flutes and crackling drums blasted over the chatter of the London New Year’s Day Parade. A crowd of 500,000 watched from the sides of Pall Mall St., but the band kept their shoulders back and eyes ahead. 

It was a different environment than the band had ever performed in. The band only travels out of the country every four years, exposing them to higher-level music and a bigger atmosphere. One of the main reasons for taking a trip like this is to force the students to support each other when perfecting a performance in a high pressure environment, according to band teacher Alex Toepfer.

“We had to have a polished performance after traveling for 15 hours, being jet lagged, and [crammed] in a hotel,” Toepfer said. “It helped the students support one another and act more like a team especially [when] putting together a performance for an international audience.”

They had to learn to rely on each other to stay in step while listening to their newly-learned whistle calls and eight-beat commands, according to senior and drum major Sam Fritz.

As they waited three to four hours at the venue before they went on, the jitters set in. Being in London and getting a taste of the international music world had band members twitching their fingers and adjusting blue hat plumes while sitting in painful silence. But the silence forced the band to fill it with discussion of their shared nerves, relieving the pressure.

“We were all there for the same reason — making music and having fun,” Fritz said. “We had to [come] together and not mess up when it’s something as important as the London New Year’s Day Parade.”

Apart from performing at the parade and a concert in Westminster at St. John’s Cathedral, the band had time to explore the sights of London. They went on an eight hour tour of the city, saw the Crown Jewels and the tomb of Queen Elizabeth II. For Fritz, the trip was about exploring the city with and without his baton in hand.

Experiencing the cultural differences, such as outlets and the lack of London-based high school bands was something they weren’t used to. They all stayed in the Hilton London Kensington Hotel, uncomfortably crammed together with a new diet, according to Fritz. Spending hours in the dining halls eating beans and toast with marmite is not traditional for the band. 

“It was a really fun experience to get to eat a cultural food of Britain [and] get some funny pictures out of it,” Fritz said. “It brought our table closer together because we were all in the grossness together.”

The London trip also allowed senior Sammy Hicks, Fritz and the band to explore London’s music culture — browsing Sax.co, which is one of the biggest saxophone shops in the world. Experiencing what their music career could look like convinced freshmen to stay with the band and seniors to keep pushing in their music careers. 

“When we all talk about our musical careers in the past and accolades, it lets us know that we are all in each other’s corners,” said Hicks. “That’s what brings us closer together is knowing that we’re walking down that same path.”